Monthly Archives: March 2018

ADDED 2: jim notes in comments that the proposed rule can now be found HERE.

That’s nice. Except…

Scroll down. New docket number. Comment count is zero.

Related Dockets: None
Related RINs: None
Related Documents: None

That means this is not tied to the previous notice with existing comments, and those hundreds of comments that were made before are GONE.

Inquiries to the ATF, DOJ, Federal Register, and various congresscritters have gone unanswered. An automated response from the ATF reads, “It is the goal of FIPB to respond to requests from firearms industry members and the general public within 120 days of receipt.”

Nice trick. If comments aren’t going your way, kill the proposal, reissue it without telling anyone, and do over until you get the results you want to justify violating human/civil rights.

I have two comment receipts now, so I can check if the first is permanently evaporated, or if they’ll… restore it.

Original post (and update) follows:

Something is up with the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on “Bump-Stock Type Devices.” I was there earlier this morning checking on comment totals: 941.

I thought of something else I wanted to see again a few minutes ago. I found this.

“Comments Not Accepted”

So I cleared cache/cookies/history/et al and attempted a new comment.

“Document ATF_FRDOC_0001-0036 is no longer open for comment.”

That was supposed to be open for 90 days, until June 29, 2018.

Very odd. Anyone know what’s going on?

Added: I also did a search on the comments submitted before it was closed (remember: there had been at least 941):

Inquiries have been made to DOJ and the Federal Register. No responses yet.

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could use the money, what with truck repairs and bills.

Memes comparing the Parkland students to Nazis have circulated at the fringes for days, but on Tuesday seemed to find a wider audience.

I wonder what gives people that impression.

Hijacking “Never Again” to promote victim disarmament as the Nazis did with the Weapons Law of 1938 (which has its own odd connection to previous US legislation)? I keep expecting to Hogg to froth at the mouth and bring up a “final solution.”

The Department of Justice (Department) proposes to amend the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regulations to clarify that “bump fire” stocks, slide-fire devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics (bump-stock-type devices) are “machineguns” as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) and the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), because such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger. Specifically, these devices convert an otherwise semiautomatic firearm into a machinegun by functioning as a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that harnesses the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm in a manner that allows the trigger to reset and continue firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter. Hence, a semiautomatic firearm to which a bump-stock-type device is attached is able to produce automatic fire with a single pull of the trigger. With limited exceptions, primarily as to government agencies, the GCA makes it unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun unless it was lawfully possessed prior to the effective date of the statute. The bump-stock-type devices covered by this proposed rule were not in existence prior to the GCA’s effective date, and therefore would fall within the prohibition on machineguns if this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is implemented. Consequently, current possessors of these devices would be required to surrender them, destroy them, or otherwise render them permanently inoperable upon the effective date of the final rule.

The NPRM falsely states: “Specifically, these devices convert an otherwise semiautomatic firearm into a machinegun by functioning as a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that harnesses the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm in a manner that allows the trigger to reset and continue firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter. Hence, a semiautomatic firearm to which a bump-stock-type device is attached is able to produce automatic fire with a single pull of the trigger.”

That is factually incorrect, and inconsistent with objective physical reality. Firing still requires the trigger finger to engage and operate the trigger individually for each shot fired, after the firearm is MANUALLY pulled forward again with the shooter’s off hand.

Bump-fire stocks do not increase the “rate of fire.” The rate of fire from a “single trigger pull” is still 1. Each round discharged still requires an individual manual operation of the trigger IN THIS UNIVERSE. The firearm’s cyclic rate of fire is determined by the physics of the firearm’s internal parts: Mass, resistance, inertia, mechanical engagement, force of discharging cartridge. If anything, a bump-stock-type device would bleed recoil energy and cause a reduction in the theoretical maximum.

Bump-fire stocks do not “accelerate the firearm’s cyclic firing rate to mimic automatic fire.” Again, that rate is determined by the internal action of the firearm, not an external stock.

A bump-stock-type device merely aids the untrained shooter in achieving something closer to the firearm’s inherent theoretical rate of fire. (Again, since some recoil energy is bled off to assist in manual trigger operation, it probably prevents the shooter ever reaching the actual theoretical maximum.) Bump-fire stocks are training wheels.

The ATF previously ruled that the Akins Accelerator differed from modern bump-stock-type devices in that the spring in the stock acted as an active component to force the firearm into the ready-to-fire position trigger against the shooter’s finger, without additional action by the shooter. With a modern bump-stock-type device, the shooter must MANUALLY return the firearm to the ready-to-fire position, at which time the shooter MANUALLY operates the trigger again.

This is very easy to test, three ways, each using a bump-stock-type device:

1. Pull the trigger a single time and immediately move your finger forward off of the “ledge” (or “finger rest”). If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

2. Should this not be clear enough, fire again; this time keeping your trigger finger off of the “ledge” so that your finger holds the trigger down, preventing it from resetting. If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

3. If you are still unclear on the concept, pull the trigger, but keep the rifle pressed back in a conventional non-bump-fire mode (i.e.- don’t pull the rifle forward). If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

If one cannot understand this, then that person is mentally incompetent and should be adjudicated as such under 18 U.S. Code § 922(d)(4), and should be removed from office.

If one will not understand this, then that person is guilty of malfeasance and should be removed.

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could use the money, what with truck repairs and bills.

I live in the area, so I’ve been hearing these guys’ radio ads for years. They’re personal injury lawyers; I have no idea if they have any criminal law experience (as lawyers) at all. They certainly don’t seem to have any firearms experience.

Attorneys with Barnes & Cohen told News4Jax that they don’t care if the trio of ads cost them business, because the message the commercials convey is too important.

[…]

Gun rights attorney Eric Friday said he believes the premise of the Barnes & Cohen ads is wrong, saying the AR-15 is not a weapon used by the military.

He argued the ads are politically motivated.

“Personal injury lawyers, as a general rule, vote Democrat,” Friday said. “I see this as nothing more than a campaign ad for the Democratic party to oppose a particular Republican senator.”

I strongly suspect their real motivation is monetary, that this is an appeal to Parkland students “traumatized” by being somewhere on campus during the shooting.

But you know me. I had to send them an email.

“Enough is enough. Assault weapons are weapons of war. A hunter needs a rifle, a shotgun, not an AR- 15,” Barnes says in the ad.

I would like to note a few points.

1. There is no such thing as an “assault weapon” in the state of Florida. You’ll need to define it before you can ban it.

2. There is a no nation in the world which generally issues semiautomatic rifles to its regular troops, because they are NOT considered suitable for general combat operations. Most nations phased them out in the 1950s and ’60s. A couple of impoverished third world nations finally scraped up the money to shift to assault rifles (not “assault weapons”) in the 1990s.

3.

“The AR-15 is designed for one purpose — to deliver maximum killing power to our military in harm’s way,” Cohen says in the ad. “I don’t need one, and neither do you.”

Then why do the police carry them? Is it their job to kill the maximum number of citizens?

I think you need to learn alittle more about the subject. I reccommend this “Gun Culture Primer” as a starting point: http://zelmanpartisans.com/?page_id=2710

I would be happy to answer questions.

And I got an answer from Glenn Cohen.

Hi carl

Read your email with interest and respect

the AR 15 is the same as a M16

it was named that way for obvious reasons

my nephew is a swat team member and carries one

he refers to it as a weapon of war

however I will read up on the subject

tks

do you own one??

Glenn

Judges must find his legal briefs a joy to read, with that lack of capitalization and punctuation.

But that beg another response.

On 03/28/2018 06:58 PM, G COHEN wrote:
> Hi carl
>
> Read your email with interest and respect
>
> the AR 15 is the same as a M16

As a military veteran who carried an M-16 for several years, former peace officer, private security officer, and informed citizen, I can assure you that the AR-15 IS NOT the same.

> it was named that way for obvious reasons

“Armalite Rifle”? That’s what “AR” stands for, you know. After the original company’s name.

> my nephew is a swat team member and carries one

Carries one what? Is it a semiautomatic AR-15, or a select-fire M-16?

> he refers to it as a weapon of war

Sounds like he has the select-fire military rifle. Not an AR-15.

> do you own one??

Do you own any valuables you’d like to tell me about?

Why would I tell a stranger what valuables I might have?

And as I typed this, another email from Cohen.

how right you are!! should not have inquired

We can disagree with respect

thanks for your respect

I was polite; not the same thing as respect. I find it difficult to gin up much respect for a personal injury lawyer who calls for the mass violation of human/civil rights, based on admitted ignorance. Note that he didn’t answer any of my questions, nor did I expect him to do so.

Yes, we disagree. But my position that AR-15s are not the same as M-16s is based on objective physical reality. As best I can tell, his is based on rainbow unicorn farts. Politics aside, this is not a lawyer I’d want representing me in court.

I felt the need to send one more email, but not to Cohen. That inquiry about whether I own an AR — “do you own one??” — bothered me. Was he hoping to pretend I told him I have a gun in a threatening manner so he could sic the cops on me, or sue? So I forwarded Cohen’s email to the Florida Bar Center for Professionalism with a simple question of my own.

There is a semi-known NRA apologist who has been advocating for the NRA position of preemptive surrender on bump-fire stocks. I’m going to quote him, but I’m not about to give him free traffic with a link. Nor will I name him, as he seeks his little moments of fame. I only use his words at all because he’s the perfect example of poor thinking on the subject. (You can copy/paste the quotes into a search engine to find the blogger and post to which I refer.)

“I’m very sorry our great-grandparents abandoned Machine Gun Hill in the 1930s. None of us alive today were there. A lot of people seem to want to die on Bump Stock Hill. It’s not that I don’t want to fight, it’s that I’m not going to fight for something I can’t win or can’t defend successfully. I’m going to strengthen my lines against attacks on my flanks and leave that indefensible position to those foolish enough to fight for it.”

In every case, bump-fire stocks (and trigger cranks and “Multi-burst Trigger Activators”) are bad merely because they assist the shooter in approaching the firearm’s inherent theoretical maximum rate of fire. The semiautomatic rate of fire is the problem.

Take away the bump-fire stock, crank, or multi-burp shoulder thingy, and the evil — to the gun ban bunnies — rate of fire remains.

Does anyone reading this honestly doubt that establishing the precedent of the theoretical rate of fire being the problem is exactly what they want?

The NPRM would make bump-fire stocks (“bump-stock-type devices” -snerk-) “machineguns” because the rifles fire fast. “Oh, look; it still fires fast, without the BSTD. Still a machingun, folks. Turn ’em in.”

All the proposed rules and legislation ban anything that assists in approaching the theoretical maximum rate of fire. It was never sloppy language in Feinstein’s proposal that would include aftermarket springs and triggers. They can assist in approaching that theoretical max.

So do quick-change detachable magazines. And fixed auto-feeding magazines.

The “problem” is that semiautos fire quickly, therefore they will be classed as machineguns, too. Eventually. That’s the slippery slope that Pelosi advocated, and that spoiled brat Tarr.

“I believe in our current political situation, the ATF classification is the path of least damage to the overall gun rights movement.”

In fact, it’s worse than the legislation, for two reasons.

1) Legislation requires at least two votes and the President’s signature, which would give us someone to fight.

2) The ATF rule proposal is based on an outright lie about how bump-fire stocks work (continuous fire with a single operation of the trigger). That sets a second precedent, that they can lie with impunity. As Michael Z. Williamson noted, “this opens the floodgates for ANY bureaucrat to declare ANYTHING illegal.” By bureaucratic fiat. No vote. No “throw the bastards out” in midterms. With no recourse but to the Supreme Court which has been refusing to hear any RKBA appeal.

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could use the money, what with truck repairs and bills.

I’ve been intending to do another column on the reaction to the school shooting because there is just so much there that feels, well, off. But then, well, I’ll get to that.

There were of course the things that tell you how very important ending violence is to some of these respectful teenagers.

And these kids are trying to convince us we don’t need guns to protect ourselves, huh. Notice, they were only suppose to be out of class for 17 minutes. A lot can happen very fast in a short period of time, especially when there is a large group committed to mayhem.

The mayor of Baltimore is receiving much-deserved criticism after she allocated $100,000 to bus students to a gun control rally in Washington D.C. later this month. The reason for the criticism is founded in the fact that students froze all winter long because the mayor says they have no money to fix the slew of broken heaters.

…….

Fast forward to March, and all of the sudden—in spite of claiming they have no money—the mayor has miraculously pulled $100,000 out of nowhere to bus thousands of students to a gun control rally in Washington D.C.

“America needs to hear the voices of the young people of Baltimore,” Pugh told the students before announcing the city’s plan to fund the trip to the “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington, D.C., on March 24.

The $100,000 will pay for 60 buses, free t-shirts, boxed lunches and other amenities for a few thousand students who signed up to go to the rally.

Judicial Watch reported last week that the city panel approved spending $200,000 for the month of March as a way to pay for lawyers representing illegal immigrants with deportation orders. Pugh said in a local news report that the goal is for everyone to receive due process.

So what’s up with all of this? Well, yesterday I was peacefully eating my cheese and jalapeño omelet and perusing a copy of March 2018 Israel Today. And there it was. The answer. In a article written by Dr. Tsvi Sadan (TS). Am I name dropping if I say I’ve met him? It’s an article on Psychological Warfare. Psy Ops. Do you think I’m being melodramatic? Let me plug in some of Dr. Tsvi’s questions to Ron Schleifer (RS). He is a teacher of psychological warfare at Ariel University and is one of Israel’s foremost experts in the field. He founded the Ariel Research Center for Defense and Communications.

Beautiful Ariel

Guesses where this was taken?

So let’s get to it shall we? First, a note, I am not typing it out verbatim. But rather the cliff notes version. Nor am I giving you all the questions, just the ones I think relevant to the topic.

TS: Define psychological warfare.

RS: The enemies use of non-violent methods against it’s rival during war time or armed conflict to achieve it’s own objectives. This definition excludes domestic and other civil disputes from the psychological operations (PO).

TS: It seems Israel is shying away from PO and propaganda in general.

RS: It is, the government is preoccupied with public diplomacy, and the idea of conscience-changing, a wonderful invention of Karl Marx. Rather than argue based on facts and reason, Marx sought to change the conscience with aggressive sermonizing. The tactic is to shout first, and shout loudest, and thereby gain the upper hand.

TS: How does PO work in the social arena?

RS: Unlike espionage, which seeks to collect information, PO exploits human weakness to disperse information. It abuses peace, democracy and morality for political ends. It’s very clever, because who wants to oppose peace or morality? The question, of course, is what morality means. And here is where the shouting and money come into play. You will win the day if you are the first to finance a shouting campaign that defines what morality is.

Ok, let me start throwing things in here.

And here is where he shouting and money come into play

How did all the marches get coordinated so fast? And who is footing the bill? The ever wonderful Daniel Greenfield has done quite a lot of digging, Daniel has. Who Runs March for Our Lives?

This is truly a follow the money article, here’s a niblet, but reading the whole article is well worth it.

Who are those people? A leaked document reveals that the March for Our Lives Action Fund is actually overseen by six directors and is incorporated in Delaware.

So far we have Los Angeles, New York and Delaware, but not Florida.

And the next bit?

It abuses peace, democracy and morality for political ends.

What could possibly be gained from all these fired up political pawns, and all these supportive adults? Alluded to in the Victory Girls blog article above.

Yep, it’s bad for a Constitutional Republic. A big part of the March for our lives was the massive Demoncratic voter drive going on. It seems you couldn’t swing a dead possum without hitting a mess of Demoncratic voter registration people set up registering the future Demoncrats. Teachers were tweeting about taking students to the “march” and getting them registered to vote Demoncrat. Crowd photos and Twitter screen shots are in the article.

Back to Dr. Tsvi and Ron.

TS: Are pro-Palestinian Israeli NGOs being manipulated?

RS: Of course. Take for example Jibril Rajoub, former head of Palestinian security forces an current head of the Palestinian Football Association. This is a man who mercilessly tortured untold numbers of fellow Palestinians, but who is now sought out by peace seeking Israelis. Under the guise of his new benign position……Not everyone can detect the cynicism, and if you are a kindred spirit, you will be converted. This is a honey trap few can resist.

Ok, we have politicians saying guns have no place in schools. We have idiot dumber than dog crap Republicans who think female teachers are “scared” of firearms and so shouldn’t be given the choice. And then there are those precious little political pawns being used in the demoncrats of the future round up. They just can’t see law abiding citizens divested of their Constitutional rights, and G-d given rights to self defense stripped away fast enough to suit them. They wouldn’t be caught within 5 miles of a gun! Evil machines of death, the only purpose is to kill, right Little Hogg? He’s the son of Boss Hogg, right?

Not everyone can detect the cynicism, and if you are a kindred spirit, you will be converted. This is a honey trap few can resist

Described as “the Harvard of Washington’s private schools”,the school has educated children of notable politicians, including those of several presidents. Both of former United States President Barack Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, and former Vice President Joe Biden’s grandchildren attend the school. President Theodore Roosevelt’s son Archibald, Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia, Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore’s son, Albert Gore III, graduated from Sidwell Friends.

You know, that’s a lot of very anti-self-defense politicians kids that went there. There have been comments made down through the years, that Sidwell friends has armed guards. There is quite a interesting article on that Does the Sidwell Friends School Have Armed Guards? So, the children of anti-self-defense politicians are worth something, their lives are worth protecting. Your kids? Meh, not so much. The little liberty thieves might want to chew that one over.

Not everyone can detect the cynicism, and if you are a kindred spirit, you will be converted. This is a honey trap few can resist

So, let’s just call this what it probably is, shall we? This is Psychological Warfare, I believe, straight from Marx and Alinsky. They define moral as disarmed and defenseless. Waiting for the government to come and save them from a threat. Like the school in Florida did. There was a tweet sent to TZP by someone who appeared to be a young girl by her profile picture that informed us it was inconceivable that a Jew in the 21st Century would need to “prove” themselves by owning a gun. I replied she had confused “proving” with “protecting”.

At the end of the interview Dr. Tsvi states Israeli society can be driven to civil war, and it’s our government’s responsibility to avert this threat.

Israel is not America, I will not even attempt to speak for Israeli society, but will merely say I believe in America, it is OUR, as in U.S. the citizens responsibility. Because most assuredly, I do believe this is what they are after, a civil war. It may bother them that we have guns, because they intend at some near future point to be in control of the government and perhaps they then plan to turn it’s guns on us.

Some wag commented since these children are so brilliant when they get done solving this, we need to ask them what to do about North Korea.

These children have been failed on a lot of levels. Their parents didn’t teach them you don’t always get your way. So they think public displays of temper tantrums are an expression of their “brilliance”. They have been failed by a fawning media eager to advance their own objectives and are using these pawns as props in their narrative. Few even handed journalists have talked to them. They are failed by politicians with taxpayer-funded security, who’s children perhaps go or went to a protected school. They have been failed by their indoctrinators who didn’t really teach them. They didn’t teach them history, or to think. They used the impressionable children to indoctrinate them.

And the result? When you virtue signal Lil Boss Hogg, you may be signaling more than you realize. But then you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?

Virtue Signal

We DO.

You see, we remember very well, and we will stayed armed. We do it for our children.

I understand and totally agree with you. But this has already been lost. So what are we to do about all of the things happening on the pro gun control front? I believe that without the MSM pushing the agenda forward, that it would die a sudden death, but that is not going to happen. For some reason, the leftist elite of the fourth estate has decided that this must be the time to try and push for the whole hog(g).

I don’t know. As I’ve mentioned before, countering the media gatekeepers is expensive, and a long term solution. I have ideas, but not the resources to implement them.

Some things that might work in the shorter term, but which I still lack the money or charisma to pull off:

Mass Protests: a la Marx for Your Lives.
A nonprofit reserved time in DC for a protest. Giffords’ group arranged transportation to ship in dupes.

Let’s see the NRA put up or shut up; their big chance to redeem themselves. The NRA — the financial gorilla supposedly in the pro-RKBA arena — could do the same thing. Schedule it now. July or August. Reserve buses to do pickups across the country. Set up a web site for folks to coordinate crash space.

The tough part is that, unlike the unemployed and student masses which the left uses, activist gun owners tend to be in the productive class, which means they have to be at their jobs being productive. But if they have a few months to schedule things, a lot could arrange the day(s) off for travel to a weekend event. Plus — just as the Marxists did — local/regional gatherings for those who can’t make the DC trek.

Strike: Hey, we tend to be the productive class. Remember the “strike” for illegal immigrants? Coordinate one single day for a mass outbreak of… red,white, and blue-flu. “Sorry; I can’t make it in today. I’m terribly sick of my rights being violated, and facing false murder accusations.” Or lock the shop door, and hang a “Gone target shooting. Back when my rights are too.” sign.

Call it a “Bill of Rights Strike.”

Letter campaigns: You know how GOA gets everyone to sign those form emails to congresscritters? Is there any reason the addressing can’t handle hundreds of news service editors’ desks? All at once? How ’bout it GOA?

Better yet, for once I’d prefer snailmail post cards. Coordinated to be mailed all on the same day. Make a downloadable template for folks to print and address to local papers, and radio and television stations.

“An open letter to victim disarming controllers,

“…shall not be infringed.”

infringe: to commit a breach or infraction of; violate or transgress

NO.

Now what are you doing to do?

/signed/

55-120 million gun owners who didn’t do it

Print a stack and mail them — again, all on a single day — to every Representative, Senator, and state legislators. Local politicians, too. Don’t forget the White House either. Send them to newspapers and broadcasters.

If 7% (a rough figure for how many out of any group typically does something) of gun owners did that, the human/civil rights violators would be flooded with piles of post cards and emails from at least 3,850,000 people. If each person sent 14 post cards (and 14 emails) — to his congressman, Senators, state reps, state senator, governor, state attorney general, US AG, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, and a local paper — that’s 53 million snailmail cards (and 53 million emails). Ambitious types with more cash on hand could send these to every congressman and Senator.

Go all out; send them to the Brady Campaign (or whatever their name is today), Everytown, Moms Demand Blood, MAIG, the NRA, and any other pro-gun control group you can think of.

Millions of post cards and emails. All at once. Preferably the same day as the BOR Strike.

They’ll try to hide it, and lie about it. But the next time they run another fake survey/poll purporting to show how much we love gun control, they’ll know in their black flabby hearts that we know.

And are watching them.

Pranking: Print a bunch of 8.5×11 signs, tape them to cardboard backing, and staple them to stakes.

PROUD TO BE
GUN FREE
HOME

We dial 9-1-1
for the children

Go out one night and stick them in random yards. Or maybe not so random.

Variations: Take a picture of the gun-free zone signs at the mall, and photoshop it: “designated helpless victim zone”. Print, a little double-sided tape, and voila!

But I hope no one spells out “2A 4EVER!” in some anti-gun HOA yard nazi’s nice bermuda grass lawn… with fast (and high) growing rye grass seed. (Broward County residents definitely should not spell “COWARD” in Sheriff Israel’s lawn.)

Elections: In case you hadn’t noticed, the Republicans have broken every promise on gun rights (and several more). There’s really no point in voting Republican just to keep those nasty anti-RKBA Democrats out; they’re effectively two branches of the one big Boot On Your Neck Party. As someone said, more or less, no matter who you vote for, Washington wins.

So make your November (or earlier primaries) vote count in a different way.

Write in “John Moses Browning.”

On the bright side, if the Republicans get tossed out, we’ll only have to watch out for the Democrats’ next infringement(s), without sneaking glances over our shoulders to see if the Republicans are about to stick another knife in our backs. Again.

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could seriously use the money, what with truck repairs and bills. If he gets enough, he could even implement some of these ideas.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is either a liar or mentally incompetent. If not for President Trump’s pro-gun control history, I would question his judgment in appointing Sessions to head the Department of Justice. If Ted Kennedy were alive, Trump would probably have nominated him for National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator.

As noted on Friday, President Trump and AG Sessions announced a coming ban of bump-fire stocks (“bump-stock-type devices,” as the rule notice so eloquently puts it); no grandfathering, get rid of it or go to prison for possession of an unregistered NFA item.

Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is proposing to amend the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, clarifying that bump stocks fall within the definition of “machinegun” under federal law, as such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger. (emphasis added-cb)

Sessions opens with an outright lie. And he didn’t simply misspeak.

The NPRM makes the same blatantly false claim:

Specifically, these devices convert an otherwise semiautomatic firearm into a machinegun by functioning as a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that harnesses the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm in a manner that allows the trigger to reset and continue firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter. Hence, a semiautomatic firearm to which a bump-stock-type device is attached is able to produce automatic fire with a single pull of the trigger.

No, they do not. Firing still requires the trigger finger to engage and operate the trigger individually for each shot fired. After the firearm is MANUALLY pulled forward again with the shooter’s off hand.

In general, bump-stock-type devices — including those currently on the market with the characteristics described above — are designed to channel recoil energy to increase the rate of fire of semiautomatic firearms from a single trigger pull.

No, they do not. The “rate of fire” from a “single trigger pull” is still… 1. Each round discharged still requires an individual manual operation of the trigger IN THIS UNIVERSE. The firearm’s cyclic rate of fire is determined by the physics of the firearm’s internal parts: Mass, resistance, inertia, mechanical engagement, force of discharging cartridge. If anything, a bump-stock-type device would bleed recoil energy and cause a reduction in the theoretical maximum.

NOT IN THIS UNIVERSE, where the cyclic firing rate is determined by the internal physics of the firearm. Bump-stock-type devices merely assist the shooter in returning the firearm to the ready-to-fire position, and maintains the trigger finger in an optimum position, at which time the shooter manually operates the trigger for the next shot.

A bump-stock-type device merely aids the untrained shooter in achieving something closer to the firearm’s inherent theoretical rate of fire. (Again, since some recoil energy is bled off to assist in manual trigger operation, it probably prevents the shooter ever reaching the actual theoretical maximum.) Bump-fire stocks are training wheels.

The ATF previously ruled that the Akins Accelerator differed from modern bump-stock-type devices in that the spring in the stock acted as an active component to force the firearm into the ready-to-fire position trigger against the shooter’s finger, without additional action by the shooter. With a modern bump-stock-type device, the shooter must MANUALLY return the firearm to the ready-to-fire position, at which time the shooter MANUALLY operates the trigger again.

This is very easy to test, three ways, each using a bump-stock-type device:

1. Pull the trigger a single time and immediately move your finger forward off of the “ledge” (or “finger rest”). If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

2. Should this not be clear enough, fire again; this time keeping your trigger finger off of the “ledge” so that your finger holds the trigger down, preventing it from resetting. If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

3. If you are still unclear on the concept, pull the trigger, but keep the rifle pressed back in a conventional non-bump-fire mode (i.e.- don’t pull the rifle forward). If the firearm continues to fire without further operation of the trigger, it is a machinegun. If it does not continue to fire, it is not a machinegun.

If one cannot understand this, then that person is mentally incompetent and should be adjudicated as such under 18 U.S. Code § 922(d)(4), and should removed from office.

If one will not understand this, then that person is guilty of malfeasance and should be removed.

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could seriously use the money, what with truck repairs and bills.

Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.

And yes; The Zelman Partisans opposes this. Accepting this is in no way a compromise. We did not get reciprocal carry. We did get a dangerous Fix NICS. And this isn’t a merely bump-fire ban; it’s effectively a ban on semiautomatic firearms (and if you think Feinstein, Schumer et al aren’t aware of that, you weren’t paying attention): parts is parts.